Sungazer

Homer has had a handful of post-Be Sharps musical projects. There was also Sungazer, a perfectly named, fictional hair metal band refusing to let the dream die. With hilarious names like Freddy Freeman, Shredder Stevens, Nick Delacourt, Peter D’Abbruzio, and Grant LeDavid, plus a power ballad called “Hopin’ for a Dream” written by Matthew Sweet, it’s hard not to believe that Sungazer aren’t the real deal. Of course, their story mirrors real life —singer LeDavid dies due to INXS-style erotic asphyxiation, at which point Apu is called up from Covercraft to carry them on their "Last Final Hell Re-Freezes Over Ultimate Goodbye For Serious This Time Never Again Part Two of ??? Tour."

02/12

Les Rock Stars

The show’s latter day Family Guy aping is especially apparent in their frequent and seemingly random callback gags, though they occasionally pay off. Such is the case with Les Rock Stars, who appeared in the 2009 episode “The Devil Wears Nada” (no relation to the Devil Wears Prada porn parody of the same name). Carl Carlson explains that he loves everything about France, save for the fact that they have “a lame-o version of rock ’n’ roll.” We then see Les Rock Stars on a terrible gazebo, performing a song that’s only lyrics are “rock and roll” repeated over and over again. Later, they improvise a song about eating “fromage.” Though the show’s writers clearly missed an excellent opportunity for a Phoenix cameo, the joke was just dumb enough to work.

03/12

Alcatraaaz

In 2005, Bart finally ditched the extreme cheese of “The Bartman” and checked out some grittier hip-hop in an episode entitled “Pranksta Rap.” While the actual storyline’s quality is debatable at best, there were plenty of excellent rap gags. Aside from a 50 Cent cameo, the story revolved around a slew of fictional rappers performing at the “Murder 4 Life” concert. Its headliner was Alcatraaaz, a gold-toothed rapped with a hat made of pistols. When he dropped his mic into the crowd, Bart happened to grab it, engaging in a fairly embarrassing 8 Mile-style battle rap with the artist.

04/12

MC Champagne Millionaire

There were plenty of hilarious fake rappers mentioned in “Pranksta Rap,” from Queen Booty Shaker (a Latifah-like hip-hop songstress with a bra made of hubcaps) to Romeo Smooth (a Little Man-style baby rapping from his mom’s carrier) and Da Glock Pointers (four dudes riding a giant gun), but the most notable is MC Champagne Millionaire. Our only interaction with him is the above screenshot, which shows him hooked up to intravenus money and champagne while grinning it up in a top hat. Still, his name is notable because of its similarities to the name Chamillionaire, whose “Ridin’” would become a career-making hit less than one year after this episode aired. Did The Simpsons prepare North America for Chamillionaire’s arrival? Unlikely, but it’s at least a fun coincidence.

05/12

Grave Matthews Band

At their best, modern Simpsons episodes sometimes succeed with pure, straightforward wordplay. And while no one was likely clamouring for a Dave Matthews reference in 2010, the show’s writers crashed one into us anyway with the Grave Matthews Band. Dressed in tuxedos and armed with brass, bass, and drums, the group performed sombre, old timey music at Mr. Burns’ party to announce his own death in the episode “The Fool Monty.”

06/12

Kovenant

Of course, since it perfectly mirrors the real world, there’s plenty of terrible Christian music in the Simpsons universe, too. The episode “Alone Again, Natura-Diddily” first aired in 2000, and is controversial because it kills off Ned Flanders’ wife Maude. The moustachioed Christian later finds a crush in Rachel Jordan, lead singer of the Christian rock band Kovenant. While the episode itself falls somewhere between “pretty bad” and “very, very bad,” the details of Kovenant are rather humourous. Before finding the Christian faith, Kovenant’s bassist was a member of the group Satanica. They’ve also recently lost their drummer to a Christian
ska band (maybe it was this one or this one), and they’re about to head out on the Monsters of Christian Rock tour.

07/12

Pious Riot

Kovenant is hardly the first Christian band to perform in Springfield. In the 1997 episode “My Sister, My Sitter,” Reverend Lovejoy refers to a band playing “Jesus rock” in the church basement called Testament (no relation to the legendary California thrash metal act), to which Bart famously replies, “All the best bands are affiliated with Satan.” Turns out Bart’s wrong, however, as a famous metal band has apparently found and changed their name: in the 2005 episode “The Father, the Son and the Holy Guest Star,” ‘80s metal kings Quiet Riot perform at a protestant music festival as Pious Riot. Revealing that they’ve found salvation, they play an updated version of their iconic hit “Cum on Feel the Noize” entitled “Come on Feel the Lord.”

08/12

Ear Poison

Aside from brief mentions here and there, there haven’t been nearly enough punk references in The Simpsons. Sure, when Bart hit it big he had Blink-182 (R.I.P.) perform at his loft, and prior to that the Ramones sneered at Mr. Burns on his birthday, but the show would do so well if they had Bart discover his local all-ages hardcore scene and find himself doing merch on a Terror tour. I’ll even write the episode for you, guys. Either way, when it comes to local DIY bands, the punks had their say in the 2014 episode “Pay Pal” with Ear Poison, a trio comprised of Jimbo Jones, Dolph Starbeam, and Kearney Zzyzwicz. Though it’d have been much better if they played D-beat, post-punk or even just gruff Jawbreaker-style pop, the band instead played something called “glam metal.” Here’s hoping the punk scene will eventually take hold in Springfield.

09/12

The Larry Davis Experience

Easily the show’s longest running gag band, The Larry Davis Experience have appeared under many different incarnations, including The Larry Davis Band, The Larry Davis Dance Kings and, in the futuristic world of “Future-Drama), as The Larry Davis iPod Experience (in which they were simply just an iPod plugged in at Bart and Lisa’s prom). Spread out over 12 episodes, the shows’ writers have been having fun with Larry Davis’ sad band-for-hire since the 1990 episode “Some Enchanted Evening.” Aside from one truly classic line (“Who likes the Doobie Brothers? Because we’ve got one of them”), the band have always been a recurring background joke rather than a fully formed batch of characters. That said, if the show continues indefinitely, don’t be surprised if we get a Larry Davis Experience episode somewhere down the line.

10/12

Covercraft

Currently in the show’s 26th season, the show had a particularly strong episode in “Covercraft.” Stuck in one of many midlife crises, Homer found solace in the world of dad-based cover bands, forming Covercraft with Reverend Lovejoy, Kirk Van Houten, Dr. Hibbert and Apu Nahasapeemapetilon. While it surely won’t appease the geeks who decided the show’s quality ended somewhere in the ‘90s, the episode was heavy with goofy guitar shop clerks and plenty of dad-rock jokes (the band mainly plays at cabbage festivals). Long live Covercraft.

11/12

Sadgasm

Covercraft wasn’t the only post-Be Sharps musical project that Homer played in. In a testament to the show’s baffling existence outside of logical time, he was somehow a college-attending grunge kid who hadn’t yet locked down a relationship with Marge in the ‘90s — despite that being when the show had already gone on the air, and the fact that the era was already covered when Homer was a bald, married family man who toured with The Smashing Pumpkins and Sonic Youth. Regardless of continuity issues (“What are we, to believe that this is some sort of a magic xylophone or something?”) the episode allowed The Simpsons to revisit the grunge era once again. Homer fronted the hilariously titled Sadgasm, a grunge band with goofy material like “Margerine” (a parody of Bush X’s Glycerine) and “Shave Me” (a take on Nirvana’s “Rape Me”). According to the episode, Sadgasm actually inspired Nirvana. We’ve felt like we’re out of ideas before too, guys.

11 overlooked fictional bands from The Simpsons

11 overlooked fictional bands from The Simpsons

We all love the Be Sharps, but what about Sadgasm?

Real-life bands like Fall Out Boy and Evergreen Terrace have The Simpsons to thank for their monikers, but the long-running show is also rich with musicality of its own. From The Be Sharps and The Party Posse to “Can I Borrow a Feeling” and the goofy ‘90s dance craze “Do the Bartman,” The Simpsons universe has had plenty of musicality. Outside of the more obvious references, however, the show has also had plenty of obscure fictional projects.

After running for a quarter-century (and, depending on who you ask, jumping the shark on more than one occasion in that time), The Simpsons is a show that continues to expand. While it may be less cromulent than it once was, the show continues to embiggen a spirit of fun.

With that in mind, here are some of the more obscure musical acts from The Simpsons’ universe, as collected over at The Rocklopedia Fakebandica.